Toxic leak patched on wrecked rail car

January 10, 2005

GRANITEVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA — Crews put a temporary patch Sunday on a railroad car that had been leaking toxic chlorine gas since a train wreck last week, while investigators looked into why a switching mechanism had been set to lead the train into railcars parked on a side track.

Nine people were killed and more than 250 were sickened by chlorine gas released when the tank car was damaged in the wreck of a Norfolk Southern train early Thursday. Thousands of nearby residents were to remain evacuated until Wednesday at the earliest.

Thom Berry, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, said workers would now focus on transferring the gas to a safer container and removing all the damaged railcars. About 16,000 gallons of sodium hydroxide has been safely removed from another railcar at the crash site, he said.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators have interviewed the three-man crew that had parked the cars on the side track Wednesday evening. Investigators said a switching mechanism wasn't turned back to direct oncoming trains down the primary rail.

"We know that the switch was lined and locked for the siding," NTSB spokeswoman Debbie Hersman said. "We won't conclude anything today, and we won't speculate about the cause of the accident until we have gathered all the information."